Why I Appreciate McKinsey…and You Should Too!

McKinsey & Company was founded in 1926, originally to provide financial services to businesses, but the founder and his early employees soon became known as a solid source of advice for management in many other areas.

Professional management consulting began to come into its own in the 1940s, and McKinsey continued to grow in both scope and influence. Today, the company is a global presence, and provides services to two out of every three organizations listed in the Fortune 1000. One reason for McKinsey’s success may be the persistent belief that management consulting should be subject to high performance and ethical standards – much like what the public expects from lawyers or physicians.

I think there is another reason that this company has endured for so long, retained their stellar reputation, and risen to such a level of prominence in the business world, and that reason is sharing.

You don’t have to be a giant enterprise, or pay seven figure fees to the company to get a lot of the same benefits that those who are, or do, receive. Somewhere along the line, McKinsey must have decided (smartly) that one of the best ways to market their services was to give away much of their knowledge and experience. I have no doubt that paying customers get service beyond compare, keen and incisive advice, and many other valuable benefits, but the rest of us can get a lot too.

Sign up for their email list, and you will be treated to provocative and useful articles and blog posts delivered to your in-box nearly every day. Their website presents you with McKinsey Insights, where much of that information and more is curated for easy access and reading. The McKinsey Global Institute is a pure R&D operation whose mission is “to help leaders in the commercial, public and social sectors develop a deeper understanding of the evolution of the global economy and to provide a fact base that contributes to decision making on critical management and policy issues.”

The magazine, The McKinsey Quarterly, was first published in 1964 and for the past 50 years this collection of published articles on management, innovation and business has continued to inform and inspire thousands of leaders. Again, tons of information is available online, at no charge. Registered users can read the Quarterly on their mobile devices or tablets, or download the full issue each time it’s published.

And, as you might suspect, the company has a robust social media presence, giving away more good insights on Twitter (several accounts, including a personal favorite McKinsey on Business Techology – @mck_biztech), Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Here at Innovaision, LLC, we are pleased to offer Strategic Planning and Creative Solutions to our clients, and if you aren’t in the Fortune 1000 (yet), we can be of service to you. But even companies with the tightest budgets can handle “free” – and free is a lot of what McKinsey offers. Do yourself a favor and check them out.